Works of John Bunyan Volume I Part 156

FOOTNOTES:

1. Cruden.

2. Pilgrim's Progress.

Israel's Hope Encouraged;

'Let Israel hope in the LORD: for with the LORD there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption.'--Psalms 130:7

This Psalm is said to be one of 'the Psalms of Degrees,' which some say, if I be not mistaken, the priests and Levites used to sing when they went up the steps into the temple.[1] But to let that pa.s.s, it is a psalm that gives us a relation of the penman's praying frame, and of an exhortation to Israel to hope in G.o.d.

Verse 1. 'Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord'; that is, out of deep or great afflictions, and said, 'Lord, hear my voice, let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.' The latter words explain the former; as who should say, By voice I mean the meaning and spirit of my prayer. There are words in prayer, and spirit in prayer, and by the spirit that is in prayer, is discerned whether the words be dead, lifeless, feigned, or warm, fervent, earnest; and G.o.d who searcheth the heart, knoweth the meaning of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of G.o.d (Rom 8:27). Verse 3. 'If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?' Here he confesseth, that all men by the law must fall before G.o.d for ever; for that they have broken it, but cannot make amends for the transgression thereof. But, he quickly bethinking himself of the mercy of G.o.d in Christ, he saith, verse 4, 'But there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared.' Then he returns, saying, verse 5, 'I wait for the Lord,' that is, in all his appointments; yea, he doubleth it, saying, 'My soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.'

By which repet.i.tion he insinuates, that many are content to give their bodily presence to G.o.d in his appointments, while their hearts were roving to the ends of the earth; but for his part he did not so. Verse 6. 'My soul waiteth for the Lord, more than they that watch for the morning, I say, more than they that watch for the morning.' As who should say, even as it is with those that are tired with the night, either by reason of dark or wearisome journies, or because of tedious sickness, to whom the night is most doleful and uncomfortable, waiting for spring of day; so wait I for the Lord, that his presence might be with my soul. So and more too I say, 'More than they that wait for the morning.' Then he comes to the words which I have chosen for my text, saying, 'Let Israel hope in the Lord; for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption.'

In which words we have, FIRST, AN EXHORTATION; SECOND, A REASON OF THAT EXHORTATION; and THIRD, AN AMPLIFICATION OF THAT REASON. 'Let Israel hope in the Lord'; there is the exhortation; 'For with the Lord there is mercy'; there is the reason of it; 'And with him is plenteous redemption'; there is the amplification of that reason.

[FIRST. AN EXHORTATION.]

In the exhortation there are three things to be inquired into.

FIRST, The matter contained in it; SECOND, The manner by which it is expressed; THIRD, The inferences that do naturally flow therefrom.

[FIRST. The matter contained in the exhortation.]

We will speak first to the matter contained in the text, and that presenteth itself unto us under three heads. First, A duty. Second, A direction for the well management of that duty. Third, The persons that are so to manage it.

First, Then, to speak to the duty, and that is HOPE; 'Let Israel HOPE.' By which word there is something pre-admitted, and something of great concern insinuated.

That which is pre-admitted is faith; for when we speak properly of hope, and put others distinctly to the duty of hoping, we conclude that such have faith already; for no faith, no hope. To hope without faith, is to see without eyes, or to expect without a ground: for 'Faith is the substance of things hoped for,' as well with respect to the grace, as to the doctrine of faith (Heb 11:1). Doth such a one believe? No. Doth he hope? Yes. If the first is true, the second is a lie; he that never believed, did never hope in the Lord. Wherefore, when he saith, 'Let Israel hope in the Lord,' he pre-supposeth faith, and signifieth that he speaketh to believers.

That which is of great concern insinuated, is, that hope has in it an excellent quality to support Israel in all its troubles. Faith has its excellency in this, hope in that, and love in another thing. Faith will do that which hope cannot do. Hope can do that which faith doth not do, and love can do things distinct from both their doings. Faith goes in the van, hope in the body, and love brings up the rear: and thus 'now abideth faith, hope,' and 'charity' (1 Cor 13:13). Faith is the mother-grace, for hope is born of her, but charity floweth from them both.

But a little, now we are upon faith and hope distinctly, to let you see a little. 1. Faith comes by hearing (Rom 10:17), hope by experience (Rom 5:3,4). 2. Faith comes by hearing the Word of G.o.d, hope by the credit that faith hath given to it (Rom 4:18). 3. Faith believeth the truth of the Word, hope waits for the fulfilling of it. 4. Faith lays hold of that end of the promise that is next to us, to wit, as it is in the Bible; hope lays hold of that end of the promise that is fastened to the mercy-seat; for the promise is like a mighty cable, that is fastened by one end to a ship, and by the other to the anchor: the soul is the ship where faith is, and to which the hither[2] end of this cable is fastened; but hope is the anchor that is at the other end of this cable, and which entereth into that within the vail. Thus faith and hope getting hold of both ends of the promise, they carry it safely all away. 5. Faith looketh to Christ, as dead, buried, and ascended; and hope to his second coming (1 Cor 15:1-4). Faith looks to him for justification, hope for glory (Rom 4:1-8). 6. Faith fights for doctrine, hope for a reward (Acts 26:6,7). Faith for what is in the bible, hope for what is in heaven (Col 1:3-5). 7. Faith purifies the heart from bad principles (1 John 5:4,5). Hope from bad manners (2 Peter 3:11,14; Eph 5:8; 1 John 3:3). 8. Faith sets hope on work, hope sets patience on work (Acts 28:20, 9:9). Faith says to hope, look for what is promised; hope says to faith, So I do, and will wait for it too. 9.

Faith looks through the word to G.o.d in Christ; hope looks through faith beyond the world to glory (Gal 5:5).

Thus faith saves, and thus hope saves. Faith saves by laying hold of G.o.d by Christ (1 Peter 1:5). Hope saves by prevailing with the soul to suffer all troubles, afflictions, and adversities that it meets with betwixt this and the world to come, for the sake thereof (Rom 8:24). Take the matter in this plain similitude. There was a king that adopted such a one to be his child, and clothed him with the attire of the children of the king, and promised him, that if he would fight his father's battles, and walk in his father's ways, he should at last share in his father's kingdoms. He has received the adoption, and the king's robe, but not yet his part in the kingdom; but now, hope of a share in that will make him fight the king's battles, and also tread the king's paths. Yea, and though he should meet with many things that have a tendency to deter him from so doing, yet thoughts of the interest promised in the kingdom, and hopes to enjoy it, will make him out his way through those difficulties, and so save him from the ruin that those destructions would bring upon him, and will, in conclusion, usher him into a personal possession and enjoyment of that inheritance. Hope has a thick skin, and will endure many a blow; it will put on patience as a vestment, it will wade through a sea of blood, it will endure all things, if it be of the right kind, for the joy that is set before it. Hence patience is called, 'Patience of hope,' because it is hope that makes the soul exercise patience and long-suffering under the cross, until the time comes to enjoy the crown (1 Thess 1:3). The Psalmist, therefore, by this exhortation, persuadeth them that have believed the truth, to wait for the accomplishment of it, as by his own example he did himself--'I wait for the Lord,'

'my soul waiteth,' 'and in his word do I hope.' It is for want of hope that so many brisk professors that have so boasted and made brags of their faith, have not been able to endure the drum[3] in the day of alarm and affliction. Their hope in Christ has been such as has extended itself no further than to this life, and therefore they are of all men the most miserable.

The Psalmist therefore, by exhorting us unto this duty, doth put us in mind of four things. I. That the best things are yet behind, and in reversion for the saints. II. That those that have believed, will yet meet with difficulties before they come at them. III. The grace of hope well exercised, is the only way to overcome these difficulties. IV. They therefore that have hope, and do exercise it as they should, shall a.s.suredly at last enjoy that hope that is laid up for them in heaven.

I. For the first of these, that the best things are yet behind, and in reversion for believers; this is manifest by the natural exercise of this grace. For 'hope that is seen, is not hope; for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it' (Rom 8:24,25).

Hope lives not by sight, as faith doth; but hope trusteth faith, as faith trusts the Word, and so bears up the soul in a patient expectation at last to enjoy what G.o.d has promised. But I say, the very natural work of this grace proveth, that the believer's best things are behind in reversion.

You may ask me, what those things are? and I may tell you, first, in general, they are heavenly things, they are eternal things, they are the things that are where Christ sitteth on the right hand of G.o.d (John 3:12; 2 Cor 4:18; Col 3:1). Do you know them now? They are things that 'eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor that have entered into the heart of man to conceive of' (Isa 64:4; 1 Cor 2:9). Do you know them now? They are things that are referred to the next world, for the saints when they come into the next world; talked of they may be now, the real being of them may be believed now, and by hope we may, and it will be our wisdom to wait for them now; but to know what they are in the nature of them, or in the enjoyment of them, otherwise than by faith, he is deceived that saith it. They are things too big as yet to enter into our hearts, and things too big, if they were there to come out, or to be expressed by our mouths.

There is heaven itself, the imperial heaven; does any body know what that is? There is the mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, and the innumerable company of angels; doth any body know what all they are? There is immortality and eternal life: and who knows what they are? There are rewards for services, and labour of love showed to G.o.d's name here; and who knows what they will be? There are mansion-houses, beds of glory, and places to walk in among the angels; and who knows what they are? There will be badges of honour, harps to make merry with, and heavenly songs of triumph; doth any here know what they are? There will be then a knowing, an enjoying and a solacing of ourselves with prophets, apostles, and martyrs, and all saints; but in what glorious manner we all are ignorant of. There we shall see and know, and be with for ever, all our relations, as wife, husband, child, father, mother, brother, or sister that have died in the faith; but how gloriously they will look when we shall see them, and how gloriously we shall love when we are with them, it is not for us in this world to know (1 Thess 4:16,17). There are thoughts, and words, and ways for us, which we never dreamed on in this world. The law was but the shadow, the gospel the image; but what will be the substance that comes to us next, or that rather we shall go unto, who can understand? (Heb 10:1). If we never saw G.o.d nor Christ as glorified, nor the Spirit of the Lord, nor the bottom of the Bible, nor yet so much as one of the days of eternity,, and yet all these things we shall see and have them, how can it be that the things laid up for us, that should be the object of our hope, should by us be understood in this world? Yet there are intimations given us of the goodness and greatness of them.[4]

1. Of their goodness, and that, (1.) In that the Holy Ghost scorns that things that are here should once be compared with them; hence all things here are called vanities, nothings, less than nothings (Isa 40:15-17). Now, if the things, all the things that are here, are so contemptuously considered, when compared with the things that are to be hereafter, and yet these things so great in the carnal man's esteem, as that he is willing to venture life and soul, and all to have them, what are the things that G.o.d has prepared for them that wait, that is, that hope for him? (2.) Their goodness also appears in this, that whoever has had that understanding of them, as is revealed in the Word, whether king or beggar, wise mean or fool, he has willingly cast this world behind him in contempt and scorn, for the hope of that (Psa 73:25; Heb 11:24-26, 37-40).

(3.) The goodness of them has even testimony in the very consciences of them that hate them. Take the vilest man in the country, the man who is so wedded to his l.u.s.ts, that he will rather run the hazard of a thousand h.e.l.ls than leave them; and ask this man his judgment of the things of the next world, and he will shake his head, and say, They are good, they are best of all. (4.) But the saints have the best apprehension of their goodness, for that the Lord doth sometimes drop some of the juice of them out of the Word, into their hungry souls.

2. But as they are good, so they are great: 'O how great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee, which thou hast wrought for them that trust,' that hope, 'in thee before the sons of men!' (Psa 31:19). (1.) Their greatness appears, in that they go beyond the Word; yea, beyond the word of the Holy Ghost; it doth not yet appear to us by the Word of G.o.d to the full, the greatness of what is prepared for G.o.d's people. 'Beloved, now are we the sons of G.o.d, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be'

(1 John 3:2). It doth not appear in the Word; there is a greatness in the things that we are to hope for, that could never be expressed: they are beyond word, beyond thought, beyond conceiving of! Paul, when he was come down again from out of paradise, into which he was caught up, could not speak a word about the words he heard, and the things that there he saw. They were things and words which he saw and heard, 'which it is not possible[5] for a man to utter.'

(2.) Their greatness is intimated by the word Eternal; he that knows the bottom of that word, shall know what things they are.

'The things which are not seen are eternal' (2 Cor 4:18). They are 'incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away,' reserved in heaven for us (1 Peter 1:4). (3.) Their greatness is showed in that one right thought of them will fill the heart so full, that both it and the eyes will run over together; yea, so full, that the creature shall not be able to stand up under the weight of glory that by it is laid upon the soul. Alas! all the things in this world will not fill one heart; and yet one thought that is right, of the things that G.o.d has prepared, and laid up in heaven for us, will, yea, and over fill it too. (4.) The greatness of the things of the next world appears, in that when one of the least of them are showed to us, we are not able, without support from thence, to abide the sight thereof. I count that the angels are of those things that are least in that world; and yet the sight of one of them, when the sight of them was in use, what work would it make in the hearts and minds of mortal men, the scripture plainly enough declares (John 13:22).[6] (5.) Their greatness is intimated, in that we must be as it were new made again, before we can be capable of enjoying them, as we must enjoy them with comfort (Luke 20:36).

And herein will be a great part of our happiness, that we shall not only see them, but be made like unto them, like unto their King.

For 'when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is' (1 John 3:2). We shall see him, and therefore must be like him, for else the sight of him would overcome us and destroy us; but because we are to see him with comfort and everlasting joy, therefore we must be like him in body and mind (Rev 1:17; Phil 3:20,21).

II. But to come to the second thing, namely, That those that have believed, there are such things as these, will meet with difficulties before they come at them. This is so grand a truth, that nothing can be said against it. Many are the afflictions of the righteous; and we must through many tribulations enter into the kingdom of heaven (Acts 14:22). The cause from whence these afflictions arise is known to be,

1. From ourselves; for sin having got such hold in our flesh, makes that opposition against our soul and the welfare of that, that puts us continually to trouble. Fleshly l.u.s.ts work against the soul, and so do worldly l.u.s.ts too (1 Peter 2:11); yea, they quench our graces, and make them that would live, 'ready to die' (Rev 3:2).

Yea, by reason of these, such darkness, such guilt, such fear, such mistrust, ariseth in us, that it is common for us, if we live any while, to make a thousand conclusions, twice told, that we shall never arrive with comfort at the gates of the kingdom of heaven.

The natural tendency of every struggle of the least l.u.s.t against grace is, if we judge according to carnal reason, to make us question the truth of a work of grace in us, and our right to the world to come. This it was that made Paul cry out, 'O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me!' (Rom 7:24). Only he had more wisdom than to follow the natural conclusions that carnal reason was apt to make thereupon, and so hoisted up his soul to hope.

2. Sin, by its working in us, doth not only bring darkness, guilt, fear, mistrust, and the like; but it doth oft-times as it were hamstring us, and disable us from going to G.o.d by faith and prayer for pardon. It makes the heart hard, senseless, careless, lifeless, spiritless as to feeling, in all Christian duty; and this is a grievous thing to a gracious soul. The other things will create a doubt, and drive it up to the head into the soul; but these will go on the other side and clench it.[7] Now all these things make hoping difficult.

3. For by these things the judgment is not only clouded, and the understanding greatly darkened, but all the powers of the soul made to fight against itself, conceiving, imagining, apprehending, and concluding things that have a direct tendency to extirpate and extinguish, if possible, the graces of G.o.d that are planted in the soul; yea, to the making of it cry out, 'I am cut off from before thine eyes!' (Psa 31:22).

4. Add to these, the hidings of the face of G.o.d from the soul; a thing to it more bitter than death; yet nothing more common among them that hope in the Lord. He 'hideth his face from the house of Jacob!' (Isa 8:17). Nor is this done only in fatherly displeasure, but by this means some graces are kept alive; faith is kept alive by the word, patience by hope, and hope by faith; but oft-times a spirit of prayer, by the rod, chastis.e.m.e.nt, and the hiding of G.o.d's face (Hosea 5:14,15; Isa 26:16; Cant 5:6). But I say, this hiding of this sweet face is bitter to the soul, and oft-times puts both faith and hope to a sad and most fearful plunge. For at such a day, it is with the soul as with the ship at sea, that is benighted and without light; to wit, like a man bewildered upon the land; only the text saith, for the help and succour of such, 'Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness and hath no light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his G.o.d' (Isa 50:10). Yet as it is with children, so it is with saints; we are a great deal more subject to fears in the night than in the day. That, therefore, that tendeth to the help of some graces, if there be not great care taken, will prove an hindrance to others.

5. Nor is the ruler of the darkness of this world wanting to apply himself and his engines, so as, if possible, to make use of all these things for the overthrowing of faith, and for the removing of our hope from the Lord, as a tree is removed from rooting in the ground (Job 19:10). Behold! he can expound all things, so as that they shall fall directly in the way of our believing. As thus, we have sin, therefore we have no grace; sin struggleth in us, therefore we fear not G.o.d; something in us sideth with sin, therefore we are wholly unregenerate; sin is in our best performances, therefore wherefore should I hope? Thus I say, he can afflict us in our pilgrimage, and make hope difficult to us. Besides the hiding of G.o.d's face, he can make not only a cause of sorrow, for that indeed it should, but a ground of despair, and as desperately concluding he will never come again. How many good souls has he driven to these conclusions, who afterwards have been made to unsay all again?

6. And though spiritual desertions, darkness of soul, and guilt of sin, are the burdens most intolerable, yet they are not all; for there is to be added to all these, that common evil of persecution, another device invented to make void our hope. In this, I say, we are sure to be concerned; that is, if we be G.o.dly. For though the apostle doth not say, 'All that will live in Christ,' that is, in the common profession of him, shall suffer persecution; yet he saith, 'All that will live G.o.dly in him shall' (2 Tim 3:12). Now this in itself is a terror to flesh and blood, and hath a direct tendency in it to make hope difficult (1 Peter 3:6,14). Hence men of a persecuting spirit, because of their greatness, and of their teeth (the laws), are said to be a terror, and to carry amazement in their doings; and G.o.d's people are apt to be afraid of them though they should die, and to forget G.o.d their Maker; and this makes hoping hard work (Isa 51:12,13).[8]

7. For besides that grimness that appears in the face of persecutors, Satan can tell how to lessen, and make to dwindle in our apprehensions, those truths unto which our hearts have joined themselves afore, and to which Christ our Lord has commanded us to stand. So that they shall now appear but little, small, inconsiderable things; things not worth engaging for; things not worth running those hazards for, that in the hour of trial may lie staring us in the face. Moreover, we shall not want false friends in every hole, such as will continually be boring our ears with that saying, Master, do good to thyself. At such times also, 'stars' do use to 'fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken'; and so every thing tends to weaken, or at least to lay stumbling-blocks in their way, who are commanded to hope in the Lord (Matt 24).

8. Again, as Satan can make use of his subtilty, thus to afflict and weaken the hands and hearts of those that hope in G.o.d, so he can add to these the dismalness of a suffering state. He can make the loss of goods, in our imagination, ten times bigger than it is in itself; he can make an informer a frightful creature, and a jail look like h.e.l.l itself; he can make banishment and death utterly intolerable, and things that must be shunned with the hazard of our salvation. Thus he can greaten and lessen, lessen and greaten, for the troubling of our hearts, for the hindering of our hope.[9]

9. Add to all these, that the things that we suffer for were never seen by us, but are quite beyond our sight: things that indeed are said to be great and good; but we have only the word and the Bible for it. And be sure if he that laboureth night and day to devour us, can help it, our faith shall be molested and perplexed at such a time, that it may, if possible, be hard to do the commandment that here the text enjoins us to the practice of; that is, to hope in the Lord. And this brings me to the third particular.

III. That the grace of hope well exercised, is the only way to overcome those difficulties.--Abraham had never laughed for joy, had he not hoped when the angel brought him tidings of a son; yea, had he not hoped against all things that could have been said to discourage (Gen 17:17). Hence it is said, that 'against hope' he 'believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be' (Rom 4:18). There is hope against hope; hope grounded on faith, against hope grounded on reason. Hope grounded on reason, would have made Abraham expect that the promise should surely have been ineffectual, because of the deadness of Abraham's body, and of the barrenness of Sarah's womb. But he hoped against the difficulty, by hope that sprang from faith, which confided in the promise and power of G.o.d, and so overcame the difficulty, and indeed obtained the promise.

Hope, therefore, well exercised, is the only way to overcome. Hence Peter bids those that are in a suffering condition, 'Be sober, and hope to the end, for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ' (1 Peter 1:13). And therefore it is, as you heard before, that we are said to be 'saved by hope'

(Rom 8:24).

Hope is excellent, 1. Against those discouragements that arise up out of our bowels. 2. It is excellent to embolden a man in the cause of G.o.d. 3. It is excellent at helping one over the difficulties that men, by frights and terrors may lay in our way.

1. It is excellent to help us against those discouragements that arise out of our own bowels (Rom 4). This is clear in the instance last mentioned about Abraham, who had nothing but discouragements arising from himself; but he had hope, and as well he exercised it; wherefore, after a little patient enduring, he overcame the difficulty, and obtained the promise (Heb 6:13-18). The reason is, for that it is the nature of true hope to turn away its ear from opposing difficulties, to the word and mouth of faith; and perceiving that faith has got hold of the promise, hope, notwithstanding difficulties that do or may attempt to intercept, will expect, and so wait for the accomplishment thereof.

2. Hope is excellent at emboldening a man in the cause of G.o.d.

Hence the apostle saith, 'Hope maketh not ashamed'; for not to be ashamed there, is to be emboldened (Rom 5:5). So again, when Paul speaks of the troubles he met with for the profession of the gospel, he saith, that they should turn to his salvation. 'According,'

saith he, 'to my earnest expectation, and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death' (Phil 1:19,20). See here, a man at the foot of the ladder, now ready in will and mind, to die for his profession; but how will he carry it now? Why, with all brave and innocent boldness!

But how will he do that? O! By the hope of the gospel that is in him; for by that he is fully persuaded that the cause he suffereth for will bear him up in the day of G.o.d, and that he shall then be well rewarded for it.[10]

3. It is also excellent at helping one over those difficulties that men, by frights and terrors, may lay in our way. Hence when David was almost killed with the reproach and oppression of his enemies, and his soul full sorely bowed down to the ground therewith; that he might revive and get up again, he calls to his soul to put in exercise the grace of hope, saying, 'Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in G.o.d, for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my G.o.d' (Psa 42:11). So again saith he in the next Psalm after, as afore he had complained of the oppression of the enemy, 'Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope in G.o.d, for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance and my G.o.d' (Psa 43:5). Hope, therefore, is a soul-encouraging grace, a soul-emboldening grace, and a soul-preserving grace. Hence it is called our helmet or head-piece, the helmet of salvation (Eph 6:17; 1 Thess 5:8). This is one piece of the armour with which the Son of G.o.d was clothed, when he came into the world; and it is that against which nothing can prevail (Isa 49:17). For as long as I can hope for salvation, what can hurt me! This word spoken in the blessed exercise of grace, I HOPE FOR SALVATION, drives down all before it. The truth of G.o.d is that man's 'shield and buckler' that hath made the Lord his hope (Psa 91:4).

[Encouragements to exercise this grace.]--And now to encourage thee, good man, to the exercise of this blessed grace of hope as the text bids, let me present thee with that which followeth. 1. G.o.d, to show how well he takes hoping in him at our hands, has called himself 'the G.o.d of hope' (Rom 15:13), that is, not only the author of hope, but the G.o.d that takes pleasure in them that exercise it, 'The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy' (Psa 147:11). 2. He will be a shield, a defence to them that hope in him. 'Thou art my hiding-place and my shield,'

saith David, 'I hope in thy word'; that is, he knew he would be so; for he hoped in his word (Psa 119:114). 3. He has promised us the life we hope for, to encourage us still to hope, and to endure all things to enjoy it (t.i.tus 1:2). 'That he that ploweth should plow in hope, and that he that thresheth in hope, should be partaker of his hope' (1 Cor 9:10).

Quest. But you may say, What is it to exercise this grace aright?